"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…"
Forty years ago, virtually every school kid in America stood facing a small American flag attached to the blackboard and recited those words. And the raising and lowering of the American flag at the flagpole in front of the school was also a part of the daily ritual. No one questioned the reason and no one felt coerced. As a nation, we were all a lot more grateful to live in America then.
So the question is this: is it valid to question the motives behind the Pledge of Allegiance and can it legitimately be viewed as coercion or idolatry or religious indoctrination or any of the other excuses a few noisy individuals give to get the American flag out of the classroom.
My answer to all those questions is a resounding no. The purpose of the pledge is not to force little kiddies to worship the flag – a fabric idol – or to sign on to the State Religion, or to fall in lock-step with a particular political philosophy. It’s a lot simpler than that. Reciting the pledge is a public declaration that in fact, you are a citizen of the United States and an acknowledgement of the fundamental guiding principles of our nation, namely, liberty and justice for all.
The Constitution of the United States specifies that in order to be elected President, a candidate must be born here. The reason is simple – a foreign born individual may have allegiances to foreign powers that are unknown to the voters, and once in office, might implement policy detrimental to America but beneficial to the foreign power.
Our immigration policy of the last several decades is an example of policy that is detrimental to America but beneficial to a number of foreign countries. The unrestricted flow of people illegally into this country benefits only those employers who want to pay substandard wages. But the cost and risk to America is enormous. Schools, hospitals and jails are all straining under the added weight, and with no additional tax revenue, the rest of us are paying the bill. Meanwhile, the countries that immigrants come from get the opposite benefit of a lighter load on essential services.
The threat to our national security is perhaps the most urgent problem we face. Without a clue as to who is entering the U.S., what they are carrying with them and why they are here, we are exposing ourselves to a potential disaster on a much larger scale than the attacks of 9/11. Few of us doubt that there are terrorists within the borders of the United States, possibly with some very compact but nasty weapons, who are planning attacks.
As the immigration debate heats up in Washington, it would be helpful for Americans to recognize that the problem is not immigration, but legal immigration. Most of my ancestors were here well before the Constitution was ratified. I tell you this because there are many Americans with the same ancestral baggage who are resentful of immigrants and lament the changing landscape, but I’m not one of them.
I am of the opinion that the Founding Fathers gave us the foundation for an ever-changing future in the simple and unchanging Constitution. And I believe that most of them hoped that their grand experiment would eventually transform the entire world.
So let’s share what we have by recognizing that welcoming immigrants who yearn for liberty and justice will strengthen us, not weaken us. But let’s also demand respect for our sovereignty by strictly controlling our borders.